Chrono Cross: Travel between worlds to save all of reality

Chrono Cross is the long-awaited sequel to the classic Super Nintendo role playing game Chrono Trigger. Although time travel was necessary in order to achieve your goals in Chrono Trigger, in Chrono Cross traveling between different dimensions and unlocking the mysteries that lie both worlds will ensure ultimate victory!

The story for Chrono Cross starts a few years after Chrono, Marle, and Lucca successfully completed their quest throughout time.

The star (and protagonist) of this new story is Serge, a young boy living in Arni Village on the continent of Zenan. Living a simple and carefree life, he leaves on a journey to secure a present for his girlfriends, only to find himself flung into another world. A world that resembles his own, except for several disturbing differences and attempts to find a way back to his own world, and meets several new friends, and enemies, along the way. Unfortunately, Serge and his companions are a smaller part of a bigger puzzle; this young lad is the key to either saving two worlds, or destroying them!

Numerous fans of Chrono Trigger wondered how its sequel would top the original? I believe that Chrono Cross is a worthy successor to the series.

GAMEPLAY

Similar to the Final Fantasy games on the Playstation, you play Chrono Cross within a rendered 3-D environment. All enemies are visible on screen, so you can choose whether to fight them or not (a feature also found in the Super Nintendo game "Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest"). Random enemy encounters do not exist in Chrono Cross. And when traveling throughout the game, you have a maximum of three characters in your group.

When entering a battlefield against an enemy, its your three characters versus your enemy (or enemies, depending). And your characters take their turn according to their stamina instead of a "time-gauge" determining whose turn it is in the rotation. If your characters have enough stamina, then it's possible for their turn to come again and again. Then you can physically fight, defend yourself, or use magics in order to win.

Physical attacks have a certain percentage of success, and can physically attack a monster until out of stamina. All your characters also have specialized technique skills (called tech skills for short). Each character has his/her own tech skills, and can either attack your enemies or heal your party.

Magics and Tech Skills can be utilized by equipping Elements to your characters. These elements allow you to "harness and channel the energies of the world." This is a list of the available elements, given according to opposing polarities:

BLACK - WHITE
RED - BLUE
GREEN - YELLOW
There is also a rumor of a "seventh element" in Chrono Cross, but I think I'll leave it as a rumor.

The spells given are similar to those in other RPG games (i.e. Cure, Heal, Fire, Ice) so a heavy explanation isn't necessary.

Your characters also have an "innate element;" meaning they are naturally aligned towards a certain element, and properly equipped elements will work better than other elements. Plus, equipping certain elements bestow Tech Skills to any character.

Finally, there are summon elements that allow you to "summon spirits" to aid you in battle. Many can heal your party, attack your enemies, or both. Very helpful.

Finding certain items or performing certain "side quests" can also help you in recruiting other characters into your party (there are rumors of up to 40 playable characters in the game, but I haven't even collected 20 yet).

GRAPHICS

Since this game is made by the same creators of the Final Fantasy series (SquareSoft), Chrono Cross boasts fantastic graphics and scenery. Plus, the CGI movies strewn throughout the game are dazzling; they definitely take my breath away. The rendered backgrounds are great; especially for the Playstation.

OTHER FEATURES
And just like its predecessor Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross has a feature called New Game+, which allows you to start the game from the beginning after beating it with all your stats and equipment. With this feature, you can go through the game in half the time, find extra characters to add to your list, and to find the multiple ending to the game. Personally, I've only found one ending but I hope to go through the game again soon.

Plus, old-school gamers that have had the privilege of playing Chrono Trigger will see numerous references to that game in Chrono Cross; thereby truly making this game a sort of continuous of Chrono Trigger, but with a story of its own.

Overall, I say that Chrono Cross is a worthy game. Great storyline, beautiful graphics, and an interesting fighting system. If you loved Chrono Trigger, or if you simply like to play Role-Playing Games, then Chrono Cross is for you!